You Can Have A Sress Free Holiday Season

You Can Have A Sress Free Holiday Season
By Barbara King, Fri Dec 9th

Every year when the holiday is over, you probably say toyourself "I'm going to be a little better prepared before thenext Holiday Season". You can even if you haven't made any plansyet. Here are just a few tips that can help:

1. Holidaytime means company or someone popping by unexpectedly, so firstof all have your house in order. Get everything cleaned up andmake an effort each day to keep it that way. This will be a lotless stressful than just waiting and trying to straighten thingsup when you get notice that someone is coming by. And again,what if they just pop in? Take 15 minutes each morning to putthings back in there place, along with your usual householdchores, just don't let the chores or laundry pile up.

2. Have your kitchen prepared. Company means food, so start nowpurchasing a few of the items that you know that you are goingto need for the Holiday baking. It will be a lot less impact onyour budget to do this, than to wait till the week ofThanksgiving or Christmas and then be faced with all the foodshopping.

3. Plan to make the holidays a time to relaxas well as the special time that I know you all want it to be.Keep a calendar of events that you plan to attend and don't booktoo many things together in the same week. If one of yourfriends generally give a party the second week of Dec., politelyask them if they plan on doing so again this year, and write iton your calendar. Don't forget the kid's activities. Mark themon the calendar as soon as you are told about them, and maketheir activities blend with the schedule. 4. Christmas meansgift giving time, so start your shopping as early as possible.Be responsible and don't go over-board. One of the worstfeelings is for Christmas to be over and then the credit cardbills arrive. Make a budget that is within your income level(without purchasing on the credit cards), and stick to it. Planto do a lot of your shopping online. Most of the companies willhave their advertised specials right on their home page, so cantake advantage of any savings.

5. Gift wrapping is timeconsuming and can get expensive if you let it. I always hit thelocal dollar stores late November and purchase a handful of giftbags that have the holiday designs. Gift bags are great for oddsize packages and gifts. I keep several spools of curly ribbonon hand all thru the year and you can just tie some ribbons tothe handles, run the scissors down the edge of the ribbon and itwill make them curl. Kid's gifts especially are targets for giftbags. Another great idea is to use newspaper. I had an unusuallylarge gift to wrap for a wedding one time, and I used newspaperto wrap it. I found some pages from the Sunday paper that hadrecipes with pictures and made sure that the recipes werereadable after the package was wrapped. I tied it with silverribbons. Everyone made remarks about what a great idea that was.So, if money is an issue, save some on the gift wraps and usebrown paper bags, newspaper or gift bags. If you wrap kid'sgifts in brown paper bags, try putting stickers all over it witha big red ribbon.

6. Decorating your home? Make it atradition to use decorations year after year and just purchaseone or two new items if you absolutely have to. Some of my mostprecious memories are unveiled when I pull out the boxes ofChristmas Decorations. I attend a memorial service on the secondSaturday in Dec., in memory of loved ones that have passed away.We get a little glass angel each year as a gift at the memorialservice and I put it on the tree. You can find lots of simpledecorations at the dollar store, and especially if you havelittle ones, this is a great idea. Let them enjoy the tree andall the festivities, by making paper decorations or popcornstrings, things that won't break and that won't matter if theyget pulled off or fall on the floor. Get a coloring book with atthe dollar store, purchase some colored construction paper. Cutout the outlines from the coloring book and use it as pattern tocut out figures or designs on the construction paper. Use a holepunch at the top and thread some ribbon

thru, and you've gothomemade decorations that the kids can help make, and it won'tcost an arm and a leg. Keep the decorating simple and let thekids help. It will make for an enjoyable time.

7. Keepsome of your family traditions or make some new familytraditions. Holiday time is memory making time, so if you havefamily traditions or things that your folks did when you werelittle, why not introduce the idea to your kids. If you can'tthink of any old family traditions, then make some new ones. Forinstance we always sang Christmas Carols sitting around the treeon Christmas Eve. Another thing that you could do is have oneevening as 'open house'. Get together with a sister or familymember and plan a simple menu or let all your guests bring adish and have an evening of fun. Sing carols, play a few gamesand have door prizes. Our family get-together is always so muchfun. If you think you can't afford a party, here's an idea. Tellall your guests to bring one gift (set a dollar limit) for aprize raffle. Tell them ahead of time that the prizes are goingto be raffled to help pay for the cost of the food, etc. You orthe hostess keeps the money for reimbursement for the expense ofthe food. Combine this with letting everyone bring a dish, andyou can have a party without much expense. We've done thisseveral times and it is a big hit. It's a way to get a few lastminute gifts to have on hand if someone comes to see youunexpectedly.

These are just a few ideas that you canuse to help have a Holiday season without the stress. Bottomline, put your thinking cap on, and keep it simple.

About the author:Owner of A Mom's Shop -Online Shopping Mall where you will find everything youneed for your home and family. Barbara has made every effort tokeep her shop family friendly and offers lots of resources andarticles for new moms.